


Milly-Molly-Mandy Has a Summer Picnic

by Peritext



Category: Milly-Molly-Mandy - Joyce Lancaster Brisley
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 20:51:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15804360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peritext/pseuds/Peritext
Summary: Once upon a time there was a very long and hot summer.





	Milly-Molly-Mandy Has a Summer Picnic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [greerwatson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/greerwatson/gifts).



> Prompt: "I loved this series as a little girl; so what I'd really like to see is a new Milly-Molly-Mandy story, similar in style and tone to the original."

Once upon a time there was a very long and hot summer, which made everybody in Milly-Molly-Mandy's little village feel quite cross and grumpy after a while.

"Goodness me!" Aunty exclaimed when Uncle came into the house from fixing the chicken coop. His face was flushed pink as though he'd been running a race, and the skin on his nose looked quite scorched. "How many times must I tell you to wear a hat in the sunshine?"

"But then my head feels too hot!" Uncle objected, rubbing ruefully at his poorly nose and making some of the skin peel away on his fingers.

Milly-Molly-Mandy was drawing a picture at the little table in the scullery, which had a stone floor and was the coolest room in the house (except for the cellar, which had spiders in it). When she saw Uncle's dilemma through the open kitchen door, she put down her pencil and dashed into the hallway. There was a very tall hatstand in the corner, and carefully Milly-Molly-Mandy used an umbrella to reach up and knock down one of her own hats. She cleverly caught it by the brim in one hand. Then she replaced the umbrella and dashed back into the kitchen.

Uncle was drinking a big cup of water, and Milly-Molly-Mandy waited for him to finish. Then she held up the hat for him, and said, "You can wear one of my hats, Uncle! It's straw and there are holes all through it because it's woven, so it shan't make your head too hot."

That made him laugh, eyes twinkling cheerily above his sunburnt cheeks. "That's very kind of you, Milly-Molly-Mandy. Shall we see if it fits?" He took the hat from her and placed it on his head - but he had a grown-up sized head, and Milly-Molly-Mandy's was quite small, so the hat simply perched on top of his hair looking very silly indeed. She couldn't help laughing, then Aunty laughed, then Uncle laughed so hard that the straw hat wobbled and then fell off.

"You do have a very big head, dear," Aunty said mischievously behind her fingers. She went to find a large handkerchief of Grandpa's instead, and she tied a knot in each corner to form it into a hat-like shape. She ran the handkerchief under the cold tap, then wrung it out thoroughly until it was only damp instead of wet. Then she stood on her tiptoes to place it over Uncle's balding crown, and pulled it down neatly around the sides. "There," she said. "Now you shan't burn up like a baked potato while you work."

He still looked funny, though, and Milly-Molly-Mandy giggled again when he went back outside and waved to them both through the window.

"Have you finished your picture, Milly-Molly-Mandy?" asked Aunty, and Milly-Molly-Mandy wrinkled her nose up.

"My hands and mind are too hot to work." It sounded wrong. She couldn't find the right words to describe the cotton-wool inside her head after six weeks of sunshine that was so bright and so hot that it made even playing outside with little-friend-Susan feel unpleasant.

But Aunty seemed to understand all the same, and she nodded her head sympathetically. "It's very warm indeed, isn't it? I do wish we lived closer to the seaside."

"We have the brook behind the garden," said Milly-Molly-Mandy, trying to be cheerful. "Do you remember when we played seaside there with the shells Muvver gave me?"

Mother came into the kitchen then with a basket of clothes for ironing, and overheard. "Why don't you fetch little-friend-Susan and play again? You've really been to the seaside now. You can play even better games with your memories."

That was a lovely idea. The brook seemed to be the only cold place in the village that summer (except for the shadowy corners of the church where Milly-Molly-Mandy sometimes pressed her palms to the stones before the service to cool off, for her Sunday dress had lots of extra frills and was very hot indeed). The clear water bubbled prettily over a mass of little pebbles, and jumped off the larger ones in tiny sparkling waterfalls that sometimes had glints of rainbows hovering near them. The grass either side of the brook was still a vivid green, not like the sad brown grass elsewhere that crunched underfoot in want of rain, and there were dozens of daisies waiting to be picked and pricked at the stems with a pin and linked together to make crowns.

"Oh, Muvver! May I? I've not gone in so long because I think I might lie down in the water with all my clothes on to cool down and ruin them!"

Mother laughed and set her ironing basket aside, fetching the loaf of bread from the bread bin and a melting pat of butter. "Of course you may. Run and see if little-friend-Susan and Jilly and Billy Blunt can come, and Aunty and I shall make you all a lovely picnic."

"And tell them to bring their bathing-dresses!" Aunty called as Milly-Molly-Mandy went. "Much more sensible than your clothes!"

It was indeed a lovely picnic, which Billy Blunt and little-friend-Susan carried between them in a big wicker basket. Milly-Molly-Mandy and Jilly followed behind, each carrying a cool bottle of lemonade from the pantry and some tin teacups from Milly-Molly-Mandy's toy set. They had roses painted on the sides in pink and yellow.

"Well!" exclaimed Billy Blunt as they began unpacking their picnic onto a tablecloth spread out upon the grass. "Ham sandwiches, and jam buns, and a delicious cake, and look at these great fat strawberries! Isn't your mother a treasure?"

"Yes, she is," said Milly-Molly-Mandy, feeling very proud. "And Aunty too!"

But they only ate a sandwich and a couple of strawberries each, for none of them could wait any longer to have a dip in the refreshing water of the brook. Billy Blunt pretended to be a duck, wriggling on his tummy in the water and shaking his pretend-feathers in a very duck-like way, feeling very pleased with himself when all the girls laughed and copied him. Then they took turns choosing a new animal to pretend to be. Jilly was a beautiful noble swan, gliding through the water like a queen. Little-friend-Susan gambolled about as an otter, pretending to catch fish in her mouth. And Milly-Molly-Mandy would have liked to have been a dolphin, but the water wasn't deep enough, so instead she snapped her outstretched arms like a fearsome crocodile, making everybody else shriek and giggle.

"I do love this brook!" said little-friend-Susan when they had all been animals. "I think it might be my favourite place in the whole village."

"Me too!" said Jilly. She was searching through a handful of pretty pebbles, looking for a favourite one. "Isn't it nice to be somewhere fresh and cool for a change!"

"I'm glad we saved the rest of the picnic," said Billy Blunt as his tummy gave a great rumble. "I'm hungry again after all those games!"

They all rolled around in the hot grass to dry off a bit, then they sat back on the tablecloth and Milly-Molly-Mandy cut them each a great slice of Mother's lemon cake. She felt very happy to be there with all her friends, cooled by the water and shaded from the setting sun by the brim of her favourite hat. She was glad Uncle hadn't borrowed it after all!


End file.
